The Day when Food Ran Out

Nothing in this story refers to the real world. Unless you want to think it does.

When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come". I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine". Revelation 6:5–6

As a Western citizen, you never thought that you could have a problem with food scarcity. Famines are about medieval peasants scratching the ground with wooden plows, farmers exterminated by communists in the Soviet Union, religious fanatics praying for rain. Things that occur to that mass of dark-skinned people who wear kaftans and turbans, people who hate our freedom and refuse to accept the rules of liberal democracy. For you, instead, famines are things of the past after that Modern Science found new ways to produce abundant food. Now, you are mostly worried that you have too much food and you are overweight. Your wife has the same problem. You both have to diet, even though no matter what you do, you seem to keep gaining weight. But such is the price of prosperity.  

Yet, not everything is well in the best of words. You already noticed that something was wrong when the COVID scourge swept the land. Fortunately, Science found a solution with advanced vaccines, and now the plague is a thing of the past.

But something ominous is happening again. As a middle-class Westerner, food was never a large fraction of your budget, and rising prices just made a small dent in your disposable income. The problem is that food prices keep increasing. You also notice that the quality of the fast food restaurants is worsening. The hamburger patty is becoming smaller and smaller. It smells bad and you need plenty of weird sauces to eat it. You try to discuss that on social media, but the fact-checkers tell you that you are spreading fake news, and your post is removed.

It is not just food. The cost of everything is increasing, and now your checking account goes into the red days before the end of the month. You can still use your credit card, but, one day, it stops working. At the bank, they tell you that you have reached your credit limit. No more credit until you show that you can reduce your monthly expenses.

The Sunday trip to the restaurant with your family was already something that you had to skip on a few Sundays. Now, you have to skip it on all Sundays. You have to cut on some foods; less meat and you can’t afford anymore the fancy foods labeled as “natural” and “additive-free.” At the end of the month, you have to buy smaller food packages until your new paycheck comes. A pint of milk instead of a quarter gallon, for instance. It is not that you go hungry during the last days of the month, but you have to be careful. The kids whine and say that there is nothing they like in the refrigerator—not even anything you like. A dinner on stale bread and greenish ham slices that stayed too long in the refrigerator? You try to discuss this matter on social media, but you are told that your post goes against the community rules and it is erased.

Then, the switch occurs. Food scarcity suddenly becomes the centerpiece of the daily news. Words such as “famine,” “denutrition,” and “starvation” are no longer taboo. The president appears on TV, and he says that drastic measures are necessary to fight the new threat to Westerners’ well-being. It is caused mainly by those Greens who wanted to destroy agriculture to make space for the wilderness they like more than human beings. They tried to starve us to gain power, as Communists are known to have done in the past. They are getting their just reward now. Their leaders are in jail, including that weird Swedish girl who turned out to be an enemy of mankind.

The president also says that the government is rolling back the ill-conceived regulations that prevented cutting trees. We need more space for agriculture, and razing down the forests will also solve the problem of wildfires. Tree huggers won’t stop that. If harsh methods will be needed to get rid of them, they will be used. The real solution, though, will come from new Genetically Modified Food on which our scientists are working hard. Developing these foods will take some time, but they will make famine a thing of the past forever.

The president adds that evil foreigners who despise our freedom are making it difficult to continue receiving the supply of fossil fuels we need. We need to increase military spending to fight those foreigners there, so that we don’t have to fight them here.

While the government is working on solutions, citizens must do their part. In TV, the concept that you need to “save calories” is repeated over and over. You need to stay home, avoid useless trips, minimize your shopping time, and no longer visit friends and relatives. Schools are closed — it is also a way to save calories. Your office tells you they are closing down for a while; again, it is to save calories. You’ll still receive your paycheck, and you don’t even need to work online — work will restart when the crisis is over. Exercising by running in the street is forbidden, and gyms are closed by government decree. Home gym equipment also has to be discarded and can be seized by the police upon inspection. “Don’t starve granny” is the favorite slogan on TV and on the Web.

Food stamps were once only for the poor, but now everyone has them in the form of an electronic “Food Certificate,” an app that runs on your mobile phone. It gives you a limited allowance of bread, vegetables, fruit, and a little meat for a total of 2000 calories per day per person. You can still buy food beyond your allowance, but prices are rapidly skyrocketing. Supermarkets now store the “extra” food on partially covered shelves so high to be difficult to reach, just like once it was done for porn magazines.

Fast food restaurants are mostly closed, and those that are still open serve only vegetable burgers. They smell even worse than the meat patties they were serving before. You hear from your neighbors when you meet them across the fence that fancy restaurants are still open for the rich, but they do not advertise, nor are they visible from the street. You have to ring a bell to enter and then show a special ID that only a few people have. If you try to mention that on social media, your post is blocked, and you are told you are spreading fake news.

Shady figures appear in the back corner near supermarkets. They sell T-bone steaks and pastrami at sky-high prices. The government reacts by enforcing stiff penalties against the black market. Eventually, a drastic decision is made: cash is abolished, and all monetary transactions are allowed only using one’s Food Certificate—now called just “the Certificate.”

The government gives 48 hours for people to convert the cash they keep at home into an allowed electronic form at a bank — and there is a limit to the amount that can be converted on each transaction. Long lines are seen in front of banks, with people desperately trying to save at least some of their cash. They say that some of them, especially old people, collapsed because of exhaustion and stress. You spend several hours in line for one of those teller machines that were modified to accept cash. When you are there, you watch your bills disappear inside it. You know that your money will be added to your account balance, but you have the sensation that you’ll never be able to spend that money. If you try to discuss the matter on social media, you are told that your post goes against the community standards and that if you insist, your account will be suspended.

Next, the government cracks down on food hoarding. Those who keep more than their allowance are those awful “preppers,” the enemies of the well-being of citizens. The police can now enter your home anytime to check what you keep in your kitchen and refrigerator. If you store too much food, you can be punished with stiff penalties, including disabling your certificate for a duration that they will decide. During that period, you can’t buy anything anywhere and you fully depend on your friends and relatives' benevolence. But they have to be careful because by helping you, they could be accused of being preppers, too. Your neighbor tells you that someone he knows gave her family jewels in exchange for a sandwich. If you report that on social media, the fact-checkers erase it immediately, without even telling you anything. You know that many people you know had their accounts suspended for no evident reason.

You think you could keep a vegetable garden in your backyard. On TV, they say that it is allowed, but you have to declare what you are cultivating on special forms, and you’ll be able to keep just a fraction of what you grow. Failure to comply brings stiff penalties. Your neighbor tells you that the police broke into someone’s backyard and discovered an undeclared vegetable garden. The owners were taken away, and they didn’t come back. You know that it wouldn’t be a good idea to mention that on social media.

Apart from having to declare it, the idea of a vegetable garden in your backyard doesn’t seem to work so well. Where do you find the seeds to start it? How is it done exactly? You try to spread tomato seeds on the ground a few times, but nothing grows. Maybe the soil is no good, maybe the seeds are no good, maybe it is something else. Besides, you have to save water. It is available in limited amounts, and watering one’s garden is strictly forbidden.

The times are especially tough on the elderly, despite the slogan “Don’t starve granny.” Your neighbor across the fence tells you that he heard that an old couple died of starvation together in their bed, and they were discovered only when the stench of their decomposing bodies became noticeable. You don’t even try to mention that on social media.

The government announces that all the national parks are being converted into agricultural fields; they will soon start producing food. The war overseas is in full swing and will surely be won. The work on genetically modified food is in progress, and the results are promising.

You go to the closest shopping mall once every week. You have to save gasoline; most gas stations have closed, and you can only buy a meager monthly allowance using your Certificate. You notice that practically all shops in the malls have closed, except for supermarkets, which now act as food distribution centers for Certificate holders. The coffee shops are still open, and they serve a brownish liquid that tastes like coffee but doesn’t give you any more of the “kick” it used to. But the cup of coffee comes with two sugar packets — a much-needed source of calories. Outside the shop, you often see young women standing. When you pass in front of them, they’ll make a sign with their hand to show how many sugar packets they want. But you can’t waste your sugar on that.

The quality and amount of food your certificate can provide seems to be going down every day. It is still supposed to be 2000 calories per person, but is it true? You are tempted to ask this question on social media, but you know it wouldn’t be a good idea. The children are whining, and when they don’t do that, they are slouched on the sofa in the living room, watching cartoons on TV. Your wife doesn’t seem to be interested in anything anymore. She just sits in front of the TV in the kitchen.

More than once, you see from your window armored columns of tanks and trucks passing on the street. Where they are going, you cannot say. Sometimes you hear shots being fired not far away, explosions, and columns of smoke rising. You understand that it would not be a good idea for you to investigate in person, or to mention that on social media.

The president appears on TV saying that the people who spread fake news about riots in the country’s major cities will be punished as they deserve. Any form of riot will be rapidly quelled by the army – if it ever happens. The president also says that those people who hoard food or gasoline are enemies of the American people and that their behavior will not tolerated anymore. In the news on TV, you see police raids where people are taken away from their homes in shackles.

Something seems to be happening with the gasoline: your car is not so old, but it moves as if it were an old steam locomotive, painfully huffing and puffing along. You should have a tune-up made, but all the nearby repair shops are closed. Eventually, the poor thing stops working altogether. You get a supermarket cart in exchange for five sugar packets from the same people who manage the girls in front of the coffee shops. From now on, you’ll have to push it all the way to the mall and back. The rules about saving calories are still in place, but the police will not arrest the people who walk pushing supermarket carts to get their food allowance. They will just inspect their bags to see if they contain only allowed food.

At home, you spend much time slouched on the sofa, watching TV. You can send the kids upstairs to watch TV in their bedroom while you can watch your wide-screen TV in peace. Sometimes, your wife sits on the sofa with you. She has lost a lot of weight, just as you did. She had worked so hard to lose weight before, and now she succeeded. But she doesn’t look better. She is pale, looking older than she is. Her skin is sagging and full of wrinkles. Maybe you look the same.

Then, one day, on the big TV screen, the president appears, and he announces that the GMO foods are ready. The news is all over the TV channels. Images show trucks carrying boxes and boxes of the new foods, and the most exciting notice is that they will be distributed for free. No need for your Certificate, just show up at the distribution centers, and you will have GM food for free. GM foods are good, they are nutritious, they are what you need to return to normal.

People crowd in front of the distribution centers. Those who still have gas come with their cars. Many come pushing old supermarket carts, others simply with empty bags in their hands. The lines don’t seem as long as you would have expected, and they move fast. People emerge from the shops with boxes labeled with the “GM” letters written in bright green characters. They load them in their cars or in the supermarket carts or simply carry them home in bags.

At home, you and your family can finally eat. The box contains GM food in the form of solid bars – you would perhaps prefer to have the old kind of food, but this is what you have. The bars have different labels: some say “chicken,” others “beef,” and others say “corn” or “wheat.” They seem to taste all the same: slightly sweet, with a curious aftertaste. They come with a sauce that vaguely reminds the old barbecue sauce - a little of a strange aftertaste, too. There are also cans labeled as “GM cola.” Very sweet stuff, again with that weird aftertaste. But better than tap water; recently it didn’t smell so good.

The kids are happy. They had been doing nothing but watching TV, and they had become thin and a little gaunt. Now, they are more active and even restart playing in the garden. They say on TV that schools will soon be reopened. Your wife, too, seems to have regained some spirits. She wears a nice dress and redid her makeup. You, too, feel better, with more energy.

Days go by. You feel satiated but a bit strange. The energy that you thought you had regained seems to be gone. Your home has become eerily quiet. The kids stay in their room, and your wife in the kitchen, they are all watching TV. For days, you, too, have been doing nothing but watch TV, slouched on the sofa. What’s happening?

You decide to take a walk. The restrictions have been eased now that there is no more such a strict need to save calories. You emerge into the street; there is nobody around. An armored car passes you, running fast. It has darkened windows, and you have no idea who is inside.

You keep walking. On the sidewalk, half hidden behind a bush, you see a body lying flat. It is your neighbor; you recognize him. He has his mouth open, his eyes vitreous, looking at nothing. The body smells of something that you can’t exactly identify. Something that’s a little like. . . a little like. . .

You turn around. You want to walk fast, but every step takes a tremendous effort. Slowly, you manage to get back home, panting. You get inside. Silence is total; where are the kids? Where is your wife? You don’t know, and you don’t care. You pass in front of the living room mirror. You hadn’t noticed that your skin had taken that weird shade of gray.

You stumble onward until you fall heavily on the sofa. The TV is off. No... it is on. You push the buttons on the remote control, but nothing appears on the screen. All the channels only show noise, and the audio is just a hiss. What’s happening? You lie flat on the sofa, looking at the ceiling. Your sight is blurred; a grayness invades your field of view. Gray, all is gray. Darker and darker. Everything becomes black.

(Reposted with some edits from “Chimeras”)